I should have included that "next friend" can also be an in-law or a legal representative.  A next friend can be considered the person who represents and speaks on behalf of the plaintiff and may be a relative, but also have no blood relationship at all. Thank you for correcting me.

I forgot when I answered earlier, that in some of my specific branches the "next friend" was almost always a relative, but that does not hold true for everyone else.   

I think I may have muddied the water when I mentioned the term "next friend" when Bill Davidson stated the term "friend" was used and not "next friend".  Re-reading what Bill wrote it does appear Daniel Brown is a friend to John Brown as we use the word today..

I don't agree that the use of the word friend in some documents is not complicated. Depending on the time period and the specific family and their particular use of a word or phrase, that one word can be quite complicated.  I have had wills that identified an individual as a friend and later in the same document or in Chancery Court cases asking for help on a equitable distribution of the estate amongst the heirs; the "friend" was further identified as a relative.

I have a family line that never differentiated in documents from a blood son or daughter from step children or from daughter/son in-laws.  All were called son or daughter and it has taken years to sort out the relationships and some of it is still not solved.

I was not the person that suggested friend could have a Quaker connection, however.  Quaker records usually capitalized Friend when addressing a specific individual in place of their name or in conjunction with given name or surname.   The Quaker use of friend does not apply to the John Brown will.

In my experience with wills and probate records I have acquired in research of my own tree, Bill, the person appointed as Executor has also signed as a witness to the Will.

Michelle Pendleton

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